The Strength in Weakness
by Arliquino-Alexi221
Summary: Love is weakness. Fear and pain show strength. Death is the only thing you are guaranteed in any life. Katlaya had this mantra pounded into her head every morning for her entire childhood. She was raised in a mercenary village directly allied with Kumogakure and is the physical embodiment of the treaty between the Sand, Leaf and her home village. Now she must learn and grow anew.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one: Catching up a bit

It was late into the night at the Konoha gatehouse; rain pounded the streets and roof with equally loud patters. Both guards by this time were bored and had begun an evil rendition of UNO that left both cursing the eventual mounds of draws that would have to be added to their hands. They were on the 15th round and were progressively regaining the previous level of boredom when a knock sounded on the wall and startled the two. They looked up to see a petite girl of maybe 13 with long blonde hair wearing a black long sleeved turtle-neck and black jeans watching them with a bland sort of amused interest.

Wordlessly she slid a waterproof leather cylinder addressed to the Hokage towards them on the counter along with a letter of admission for a Katlaya Uzumaki of _Shinku-no-Akumu-Gakure _and a photo I.D. labeling her as that person. The two guards blinked up at her owlishly for a moment until she turned the back of her fingerless gauntlets toward them, baring her home village's insignia to them. The two then turned to each other and began playing rock-paper-scissors to see which of the two would be able to leave their post to escort her. After a while they grew bored of their game and the winner turned to her, bowed and stepped out of the guard house, leading her toward the Hokage's office.

Katlaya grabbed up her leather case, I.D. and admission letter and began following him. The remaining guard in the gatehouse sighed forlornly and leaned back in his chair wishing he had remembered to grab some extra food before leaving home that evening and stared at the sky, feeling sleep attempt to overtake him however, he stood and began pacing around the small gatehouse. His stomach grumbled and he whimpered quietly sinking back into his chair, and frowned the swirls decorating his cheeks that were the mark of his clan crinkling slightly, and wished his partner would return soon.

Katlaya and her escort walked in-step towards the office building in the center of the village. She looked around herself, inwardly in awe of how much yet how little the village had changed since her last visit. Her escort watched her and noticed how little she moved herself though from the look in her eyes she was unbearably excited to be in Konoha. Inwardly he wondered why, he'd never seen her around, and how someone of her obvious young age had managed to reach the rank of an ANBU much less an ANBU-General of the cloud village was beyond him, he'd never heard of anyone with talents like that in the leaf village. He'd heard stories of the supposed child-menaces that Kumogakure produced with such seemed ease, but it was another to see one in a lone setting.

She walked differently than most other kids he'd seen her age, more graceful and controlled, as if she'd had more experience being sneaky. Another thing that threw him off about her was the fact that she made no noise when she walked. Even the near-silent pats of his own feet seemed to echo in the empty streets around them. His eyes were drawn suddenly to her hair, thinking he had seen a flash of red in it and automatically thinking himself incorrect. Red eyes weren't exactly common, but they weren't a rarity either, and besides that her mostly visible eye was a bright blue. Red eyes were practically everywhere in comparison to differently colored eyes. Quite out of nowhere, the silence between the two felt awkward to the man, "Name's Hideki, Hideki Natsu. You ever been here before? Ya seem a bit caught unawares."

She looked up at him and smirked a little, the small smile making her look incredibly more child-like. "Not for a long while,"

Gods was her voice pretty, bells chiming came to mind though it had a bit of a rougher, lower ring to it. "Things have changed a bit more than I was expecting. Its been about 5 years since I was last here, I wasn't expecting it all to still seem so _big_..." She looked at her feet, minutely surprised and embarrassed by her personal emition that she had blurted out. The phrase, so simple and slightly childish, startled a slight chuckle out of Natsu. "I'm sorry Sir, I-"

"Don't even think on it little miss, and mah name's not 'Sir' its Natsu." Katlaya looked up at him, her eyes betraying her shock at his insistence. Noting her shock, he looked down and scratched the back of his neck. "Ah, mah apologies miss; I suppose you're not used to such informalities. Ah just ain't comfortable with being called someone Ah'm not. Mah pa's called Mr. Hideki, Ah'm jus' Natsu. To everyone, not jus' you, and especially mah friends." the look in her eyes changed, showing her internal intrigue

"Does this mean we're friends? We've only just met and it is late...Didn't your parents ever tell you not to talk to strange, innocent looking people?" The rain began to lessen as they walked nearer and nearer to the large central building, neither particularly caring about being drenched. As Katlaya surveyed the building, mentally pulling up maps of the building itself and the rest of the village. Along with the basic maps re-surfaced intricate plans including under-ground electric lines, sewer systems and blueprints for all the public buildings in the village. She allowed her mind to wander as Natsu thought up an answer to entertain the bright child.

"They may have, ah wouldn't remember if they had. See, mah parents died when ah was jus a kid. Grew up bein' raised by the elderly couple that lived down tha' road. Only thin' ah really remember about em' was mah ma's eyes. Brigh' green and pretty as yours. If ya don't mind meh sayin' so..." Katlaya ducked her head at the compliment, genuinely embarrassed by the sentiment. A puzzled light crossed her eyes and she looked up at him, the duo neared the large entrance to their goal.

Upon opening the door, they were greeted by the guard who, after a few moments hushed conversation with Natsu, began to lead them up several flights of stairs, grumbling the whole way about travelers not knowing when the decent time to arrive in a town is. The guard left them at a doorway, told them to wait there, and ambled off down a hallway to find someone to go and alert the Hokage to the visitors, grumbling about troublesome teenagers the entire way.

As he left Katlaya turned back to Natsu. "What brought you to Konoha? By the sound of things you lived in one of the farming communities off south, How'd you make Jonin by such a young age? I mean, you can't be any older than perhaps 23; 27 at the oldest and you'd have to make up the years you would have missed from an early start..." He smiled down at her in an almost endearing sort of way.

"Ah was taken on as an apprentice by a shopkeep'r in town, E' thought Ah showed promise as a ninja so E' started me at the academy. Sure Ah started off a'bit late and Ah ended up being the eldest in mah year but Ah was the first of mah yea' to make Chunnin and then the second to make Jonin."

"Huh, That so?" Katlaya dazed off to look out the window at the approaching sunrise, not having realized how quickly the night had passed. Natsu huffed and crossed his arms, more than a bit immaturely.

"Could be a'least a'_bit_ impressed... Lotta 'ard work it too' tah git me this fa', could a'least show a'bit O' interest."

Katlaya looked over her shoulder and grinned, impishly at him, the expression suiting her rather well. "I could... but I wouldn't want you to get a big ego."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Mutual Understandings and the Triumphant return Home

Katlaya leaned against the wall opposite the door to the Hokage's Office, twirling a strand of blonde hair in her fingertips in a bored and nervous sort of way. Hideki had gone to return to his station about an hour ago after the Hokage and a group of Jounin had busted out from the door she kept glancing up at. One of the ninja had stopped to tell her that she'd have to wait until they'd "taken care of something".

Sighing Katlaya slid to the ground, exhausted after her 7 day journey. Chronic insomnia had its downsides; alas travel was not one of them. She could simply keep moving to her destination almost non-stop until her journey was finished, given that it didn't last for longer than about 5-6 days. That seemed her body's complete limit for travel, unless she remembered to plan ahead and take short breaks along the ride which she almost never did. Constant training she could manage about 4 days and even the occasional 6 if she decided to be exceedingly bullheaded about learning something new in particular.

That being said she was practically asleep on her feet, being around 24 hours over her normal limit. Katlaya huffed bit of hair from her vision and glanced out the window into the colorful sunrise, a sudden impulse to climb to the roof and feel the sun's warmth. She waited, and waited, soon she even began drifting off. Stubbornly she stood up and paced in a circle, attempting to keep herself awake. Once she felt a bit closer to wakefulness she tottered her way up to the window and peered out at the rising sun, leaning her head against the glass and sighing gently, making the glass fog a little.

At the edge of her hearing she could make out several distinct voices making their way towards her. Seemingly the group's errand had been taken care of and, Katlaya noted with amusement, it had involved a loud-mouthed child from the addition of a new and young sounding voice to the more masculine sounding troupe grumbling on their way away. She made her way back to her original standing point and composed herself, making it seem as if she had never moved from her post. Slowly she allowed her exhaustion filter through her composure, after all a little guilt was never a bad thing when it came to getting a safe and (even minorly) comfortable bed to crash in.

The group made their way into the hallway she occupied and halted, shock filtering across their faces when they noted that she was still standing in the same spot they had left her. One spotted the insignia on her gauntlets and paled, whispering to the others around him hurriedly. As they all began to get worried about why a Mercenary-Ninja from _Shinku-no-Akumu-Gakure_ was even anywhere remotely near Konoha, someone from the back of the group cleared their throat. Slightly startled, the congregation of Jounin split to show the Hokage, looking moderately annoyed at the rolled up carpet being carried by the Jounin behind him. One of the group, the one who had also seen her village insignia, leaned forward to whisper something to the aged man. He looked up at Katlaya and sighed, gesturing for the carrier to take away his load.

"I do apologize for the delay; I trust you had a safe journey here?" He began, calmly making his way towards her. For an elder man, he still possessed a level of grace and maneuverability that most ninja strived for. Katlaya had only ever met the 3rd Hokage twice before, when she was very young, but his power and general level of strength left her determined to reach his level of power and competence.

"Yes, I did, and its quite alright. I see you've had your hands full with..._other_ matters." She smiled up at the man in a stressed and tired sort of way, not bothering to pretend as if she wasn't about to fall asleep where she stood. Noting her condition, he ushered her into his office, muttering to someone behind him to get a towel for the girl.

"Yes, this village has two little un-ruly tramps. This one, however, is my own grandson. I trust he will make himself known to you once it is made known to him that you not only intend to stay, but are a high-ranking kunoichi from a village he may have never heard of. You will certainly perk his interest." He sat at his desk and gestured for her to take a seat after the jounin returned to hand her the towel and left, locking the door behind him. "I'm sorry your arrival was delayed so much, we had been expecting you two days ago."

"That's odd; Kumogakure is an 11 day walk to Konoha and if flown its a 7 1/2 day journey on average. I'm here sooner than I had expected, considering I didn't stop for a break but..." Katlaya tensed, expecting a rebuke for correcting the man. However, all she received was a smile and a soft chuckle.

"You seem to forget how we treat our ninja, Miss Katlaya. I meant no insult to your abilities, nor to insinuate that you intentionally delayed yourself. After all, you do have a very personal connection to this village and I know you well enough to be able to state with confidence that you would not simply laze around when given an assignment. Even a long-term one such as this. In relation to this, the majority of your personal items from Kumo have not yet arrived, due to the sudden call for mercenary ninja in the Village Hidden in the Mist. And, since the agreements for your stay with us only recently changed to you joining us _before _the Chunnin Exams, your apartment has not yet been made ready for you." At this she sighed and simply put her face into her hands, too tired to begin to even contemplate registering a complaint.

"To..._compensate_ for this, arrangements have been made for you to stay with the Hyuuga Clan until such a time as your official and long-term home is available to you." Katlaya's head snapped up, eyes wide with momentary shock which soon gave way to immeasurable, and child-like joy that had her nearly bouncing in her seat. "I figured you'd react that way, Hiashi, Hinata, Neji and even little Hinabi are all very eager to see you again. And I can see that sentiment is mutual. Now then, since you have been filled in with the more minor details of your stay, its time for us to discuss your deeper reasons for this visit." The Hokage stood and walked to a file cabinet, pulling from it a folder that he handed off to her and re-took his seat.

"Your long-term mission is one of exceedingly high importance and seriousness. I'm entrusting this to you alone instead of your troupe on the basis of how delicate this mission may come to be over time. Because of this, your rent and electricity and water bills have all been paid off for this upcoming year." When she moved to dissent (She could and would work to pay for her own lodgings, she wasn't an invalid thank you!) he waved her down. "Its no good arguing, everything has already been arraigned. Now, onto specifics. Read through those files and memorize as much of the information as you can. I cannot allow you to leave with them, but they are open for you to view when necessary." After a few moments, Katlaya looked up at him, confused.

"You want me to watch over this Genin? She doesn't seem to be that big of an issue, all told. This...Tsuzuki Nara...There isn't anything here to specifically scream out danger." Wordlessly the Hokage motioned for her to flip over the page and keep reading. Gingerly she did and saw a short foot note with a small tagline. Reading it, her eyes widened. "Oh. Well. Yes, that would do it."

"That is to say, I don't think she'll be a problem. She's a rather skilled child for her age, regardless of what her father may say, and she has a pure heart. But now that she is getting older, some precautions should be taken to cement _her_ safety. What with her situation being what it is. Someone's bound to come to call for her, be it _Him_ or somebody else, so an added hand wouldn't go amiss" The man nodded, arms spread wide. "You understand the need for secrecy now, don't you?" She nodded, going to the other folder but stopped suddenly only a short bit into the reading. Katlaya pointed, shock coming to the fore-ground of her mind. "Yes that boy, that near irredeemable troublemaker, is the other Uzumaki child. Your brother. That being said, he is not allowed to know you are his sister. In fact, He's not to know you even exist. At least, not now. When the time comes he will be told, that I can assure you."

Katlaya nodded, slightly dumb-struck; She had known that she had a brother, a twin at that, but had never met him. She had been born unhealthy, and the chakra of the nine-tailed fox had corrupted her own chakra when she had been first born. The two had to be separated, simply to keep her from becoming completely corrupted since no-one had any clue where the corruption would lead. She had been sent to live with her God-Mother, the wife of the 4th Kazekage, and her family. She had been sick enough, for long enough, that when the Kazekage had the One-Tailed Bijuu sealed inside of his unborn son, some of the chakra had begun to affect her again. Her condition worsened, extremely high fevers and unstable breathing later developing into an annoying heart condition. Help sounded from _Shinku-no-Akumu-Gakure_, who offered to help save the near death child, so long as she was signed over into their training program and sent to live in Kumogakure. So she'd never met him, even when she was in Konoha when she was younger she had been kept under a close enough watch that she'd never met him, even by accident.

"I did not think myself ever to meet my brother. I should..." She squared her shoulders and lifted her head, purposefully hiding her shock behind stern seriousness. "I should like to meet him, as his sister, when you decide it is...proper." She looked back to the folder in her hand, feeling the weight of the papers carefully; then stood and walked it back to him, sitting it on his desk.

"Another thing, you will be added to the roster of Genin for the Chunnin Exams, instead of simply presiding over them as previously agreed. That's not an issue, I presume?" At Katlaya's mutter of approval, he continued "That being stated, you will be added to a team of Genin. You will suppress both your abilities and chakra to that of a standard Genin. If I understand correctly, that may require a multi-level seal; One you can release and restore, level-by-level, as you need. I trust you can do such a thing on your own but, should you require it, we do have seal-creators that can assist you. One such is your new Squad Leader, Anko Mitarashi. You'll be her second-in-command, unofficially of course." She nodded in understanding, it wouldn't do for her to officially be a jounin's second when she was supposed to be a Gennin.

"In addition, Eric Mikamiashiki and both Kimisagashi twins are on your new squad. You will be acting as their equal along with Tsuzuki." A small, almost unheard, grumble rumbled in her throat, causing the Hokage to chuckle. "They don't seem to listen to anyone but Anko and you. I feel if we take that away they'll revolt, and I simply don't have the time for any more troublemakers besides Konohamaru and his friends, Naruto included. Not to mention you've been able to pull more ability out of them than anyone had thought was possible considering their 'late' start in your program.

"And I do believe that is all, if you have no questions I can have someone escort you to the Hyuuga Mansion so you can get some much deserved rest." He stood and motioned for Katlaya to do so as well. She stood, shaking her head, a small smile commandeering her expression.

"No, I'm clear on this, considering it is fairly straight-forward." Katlaya followed him out of the room and stood while he went and talked to a guard, asking him to go and fetch a Hatake Kikashi to escort her. "Really sir, I remember the way and can make it on my own...I don't particularly need an escort."

The Hokage turned back to her and smiled as the guard leapt out the window in search of the chronically tardy Jounin. "Now, it wouldn't do for a new transfer Gennin to walk through the streets of this fine village without being properly shown to her lodgings on her first day. That would make us look bad, now wouldn't it?" A little comical sarcasm slipping into his voice.

For the second time that day, Katlaya sat on the floor with her back leaned against the wall. Silently she waited for her supposed escort. Had it not been three hours since the guard playing fetch had come back and said he was on his way she wouldn't be even contemplating falling asleep in such a public place. Her body was running on borrowed time as it was; still cold, mainly soaked and completely exhausted.

"I suppose you're Katlaya?" Said girl very calmly looked up out of the corner of her eyes at the speaker. Silver hair spiked slightly to the side, a face mask covering the side and bottom of his face mostly covered the borderline goofy smile he gave her. She nodded a small bit, choosing to be polite over sarcastic regardless of her circumstances. "I'm -"

"Kikashi Hatake. Jounin. You're to escort me to the Hyuuga Mansion before I can manage to pass-out from exhaustion. You're late." Her voice grated slightly, giving Kikashi the notion he'd chosen to screw with the wrong adorable little munchkin. A drop of sweat dripped from his brow, showing his momentary apprehension.

"Yes well, I am sorry. I got a bit lost on the road of life on the way."

"Bullshit..*clap-clap-clap* Bullshit *clap-clap-clap*" Her claps even seemed exceedingly lifeless, almost getting the man to feel bad for her.

"Then shall we go?" He held out his hand to assist her. She looked at the offered hand, debated her options for a moment, shrugged and took it to pull herself to standing.

The two began walking, Katlaya occasionally cracking a locked joint to Kikashi's amusement. The roads were almost completely empty with only the barest number of early risers meandering the town. The walk was almost over even, when a man in green spandex, a bowl cut hairstyle and the largest eyebrows Katlaya had ever seen, zapped himself in front of them.

"Arch-rival! You're seeming rather youthful today! I hope it will not impede our planned battle."

"Oh, I'm sorry Gai, I'll have to back out of this one, my team is on for mission duty today." The smile Kikashi gave 'Gai' practically screamed fake but the other did not seem to notice, instead he began spewing out random nonsense regarding Youth and Beauty and any un-godly number of non-sequiter ridiculousness. Katlaya simply looked at the raving lunatic and then back at Kikashi, meeting his eye in a silent question if they really _had_ to stay through the remainder of the rant. He shook his head minutely, and looked back at Gai. "Gai, apologies, but I'm busy presently. I have to escort this young Miss to the Hyuuga Clan's Main House. So, if you'll excuse-"

"AAAAHHHHHH! So _THIS_ is the young lady I heard will be joining us for a time. Allow me to introduce my self _properly!_" Katlaya began slowly walking away from the man, him never noticing a thing until he had finished bellowing his name (Might Gai) in the middle of the village square and both she and Kikashi were already headed on their merry way. "Kikash_iiiiiiii_!" The man behind them actually whined as they meandered their way off in the direction of the house.

"That, just for a reference, was Neji Hyuuga's squad leader. From what I've heard, you're good friends with him so I'm guessing its best if you're prepared for the next time you see him. He can be a bit of a..._handfull_." He nearly grumled the last bit out to Katlaya's amusement. As they reached the main gate Katlaya buzzed the intercom attached to it, and waited a moment for them to be allowed passage and the gate to be unlocked before walking in and turning to waved a polite goodbye to Kikashi. He mockingly bowed in response and poofed away, leaving her to walk up to the house on her own.

*(1)* The moment she walked into the house she was bombarded by women, greeting her and gasping over how much of a mess she had made of herself before whisking her off to the baths. Not one complaint came from Katlaya as she allowed them, just this once, to dote on her as she hadn't ever really been comfortable with letting them do so before. The next half-an-hour was spent being pampered and made presentable for meeting Hiashi, the head of the household. After realizing how tired she was however, the women showed her to her room and allowed her to sleep until she was refreshed.

(1) I have here that there is a group of perhaps 15-20 branch-family women who choose to greet and pamper guests (Laya included even though she's more considered family) So when Laya waltzes in, covered in dirt, sweat and still moderately soaked they kinda go bonkers, not that she's one to complain at this moment.


End file.
